Nfl`s Off, But Plenty Is Going On

January 17, 1992|By JORGE MILIAN, TV/Radio Columnist

Football wives rejoice! For the first time in over five months, a weekend will pass with not a single NFL game on television. That doesn`t mean the world of television and radio sports has shut down. Notes and news from the past week:

-- The Sunshine Network really blew it last Saturday during its telecast of the Arizona-UCLA basketball game. Somebody at Sunshine decided to pull the switch on the game with two minutes left, causing viewers to miss a buzzer- beating shot by UCLA that ended Arizona`s 71-game home winning streak. Sunshine inexcusably switched Arizona-UCLA for the much-awaited Florida International-Stetson humdinger. ``It was obviously a mistake,`` said a Sunshine spokeswoman. ``We wish we could go back and change what happened.``

-- The local presence of electronic media at the Super Bowl will be nearly non-existent. Only WIOD will have live coverage from Minneapolis with Joe Zagacki hosting Sportstalk Tuesday through Saturday.

-- Will WQAM add two talk shows, one all-sports, to its lineup in the near future? Hard to say since movers and shakers at the station aren`t commenting (probably too busy listening to that Freddie Fender music) but some people in the know think its better than 50-50 that it will happen. Ed Berliner, formerly of Channel 6, supposedly is the frontrunner if the proposed sports talk show becomes a reality.

-- If you don`t speak or understand Spanish, you probably don`t know that Rene Giraldo is the best Dolphins play-by-play announcer in this town. Giraldo, who will work next Sunday`s Super Bowl for CBS` Hispanic Radio Network, has been announcing Dolphin games on WQBA for 10 years. ``I can remember when we first started, we would devote our entire halftime to educating our listeners about the game,`` Giraldo said. ``Now the interest and knowledge about football among the Latin community is unbelievable.`` Former Dolphin kicker Fuad Reveiz will work with Giraldo as an analyst on the Super Bowl broadcast.

-- If you are looking for hidden gems among local talent, look no further than Jeff DeForrest, who can be heard on WIOD`s Sunday Morning Sports Page. DeForrest offers a fresh alternative to listeners who don`t want to talk about the Dolphins or the Heat. Last week, DeForrest had hockey analyst John Davidson as a guest. Hockey talk for one hour. When was the last time that happened on South Florida sports talk?

-- In its lead-in tease to Sports Final last Sunday, Channel 4 referred to its ``exclusive`` interview with new Heat guard Brian Shaw despite the fact Shaw had already talked to the local papers, Spanish radio and at least one local television crew.

-- WIOD`s Sportstalk crushed rival WQAM`s Sportsline in the fall ratings book. Among men 18 and over (the group that makes up the large majority of sports fans), WIOD registered a 9.3 rating between the hours of 6 to 8 p.m. nearly doubling its summer book of 4.8. WQAM had a 2.1 rating in the fall between 6 and 8 p.m. although that was considerably higher than its summer book of 1.0. ``People are always saying that WQAM is threatening us and (Sportsline host John) Moynihan says that they`re catching us,`` Zagacki said. ``But it`s not happening.``

-- SportsChannel will air the NHL`s ``All-Star Friday,`` an event similar to the NBA`s all-star competition. The NHL brand features a game between hockey old-timers and a skills competition including fastest skater and hardest shot. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. from the Spectrum in Philadelphia. NBC will carry the 43rd annual All-Star game Saturday.